Noggin
Noggin is an entertainment brand launched on February 2, 1999 as a joint venture between Viacom's Nickelodeon and the Children's Television Workshop (now known as Sesame Workshop). The Jim Henson Company also held a stake in the channel when it was launched. Noggin was initially advertised as both a linear television network and a website. The brand has since expanded to include three mobile subscription services, a second website and four defunct programming blocks worldwide. It was initially aimed at a pre-teen audience and shifted its target demographic to preschool-aged children in April 2002. Every Noggin service is released under Viacom's Noggin LLC banner. As of 2018, Noggin LLC is headquartered in the MTV Studios wing of One Astor Plaza in New York City. 'History' 'Pre-history (1995–1998)' In 1995, Children's Television Workshop (now known as Sesame Workshop) began planning its own educational subscription channel as a new home for most of its programming (other than Sesame Street) such as Cro (which had aired on ABC with excellent ratings, but was canceled after 2 seasons). The channel was to be called "New Kid City" and was planned to be CTW's "own niche on the dial with shows that emphasize educational content"; but CTW later abandoned the concept. Meanwhile, Nickelodeon began planning an early interactive educational channel called "Big Orange"; in addition to Nickelodeon, other Viacom divisions (such as Viacom Interactive) were involved with the project. By 1997, Viacom retooled the project into an attempt at a package of educational programming to by syndicated to the major broadcast networks to fulfill the FCC's stricter new requirements for educational programming, and the project was renamed "Noggin". A pilot was also developed for the project that was based on a Nickelodeon series of shorts called "Inside Eddie Johnson". In addition to being a syndicated package of educational programming, another vision was that Noggin could also evolve into a pay channel that would focus on educational content, complementing entertainment-oriented Nickelodeon. For various reasons, Noggin would ultimately not launch as a syndication package, though CTW and Nickelodeon would form a partnership in 1998 for the pay channel concept, and Noggin was announced soon after as a joint venture between Nickelodeon and CTW with the goal of "positioning educational children's programs at the forefront of the digital cable movement". 'As Noggin (1999–present)' 'Original Noggin (1999–2002)' The new channel launched on February 2, 1999 at 6:00 a.m., with the original pilot episode of Sesame Street from 1969. It then was followed by the first few episodes of The Electric Company, which had not been televised since 1971. At the time Noggin launched, only Inverness, Colorado-based satellite provider EchoStar and Meridian, Colorado-based satellite provider Dish Network carried the channel. The network's name was derived from a slang term for "head" and, by extension, had reflected its original purpose as an educational channel. Noggin's programming was originally targeted primarily at pre-teens from 1999 to 2002, although a few programs airing on the channel were aimed at preschoolers. This had the unintended consequence of creating a redundant audience with parent network Nickelodeon, which also primarily targets a pre-teen audience, despite Noggin's programming being more educational in nature than the entertainment-based Nickelodeon. The channel's first official mascot was Phred, a strange pickle character, who was seen on the channel from 1999 to 2002. Programs that aired on Noggin during this period of Noggin's history included (among others) Phred on Your Head Show, A Walk In Your Shoes, Sponk!, and Bill Nye the Science Guy. 'Preschool Noggin (2002–present)' 'Feetface Era (2002–2003)' On April 1, 2002, the format of Noggin was changed to reflect the network's programming strengths, shifting its target audience to preschoolers full-time and outside of Sesame Street, moving archived CTW/Sesame Workshop programming to the graveyard hours until their eventual removal on May 26, 2003. That same day, Noggin debuted a new mascot named Feetface. Acknowledging at the time that there was low demand for nighttime preschool programming, Viacom launched The N in the evening/early morning half of the network's broadcast day. It targeted an older audience and carried programming that had more appeal to young teenagers than Noggin or Nickelodeon's show. Similarly to the shared-time format of Nickelodeon (which had shared channel space with other channels throughout its early history including The Movie Channel, the Alpha Repertory Television Service (also known as ARTS), and ARTS' successor A&E) and Nick at Nite, Noggin and The N aired their respective programming over the same channel space and in a block format: Noggin ran from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET, while The N ran from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. ET seven nights a week. This was acknowledged in Noggin's daily sign-off message, which explained that Noggin would resume its programming at 6:00 a.m. ET the next morning. Later in 2002, Sesame Workshop sold its stake in Noggin to Viacom, giving them full control of the channel. Noggin was a commercial-free service, but it showed interstitials between shows such as episodes from the short film series Oobi and Connie the Cow's Milk Break, as well as other "tie-in" media such as music videos that tied in with promotions for programs on the other Nickelodeon channels. At the time, the channel's revenue came primarily from carriage fees paid by pay television providers. On April 6, 2003, Feetface's last day on Noggin aired, alongside Maurice Sendak's Little Bear. 'Moose & Zee Era (2003–2007)' On March 8, 2003, a preview for Moose and Zee begin airing, in which Feetface is seen meeting Moose A. Moose and Zee and asks Moose and Zee to take over before announcing his departure from the network. On April 7, 2003, Noggin introduced two new mascots named Moose A. Moose and Zee D. Bird. Besides airing classic Nickelodeon preschool series such as Blue's Clues and Dora the Explorer, and original shows such as Oobi and Jack's Big Music Show, Noggin also aired many preschool-oriented shows originating from English-speaking countries outside of the United States (including Nelvana's Canadian series Maurice Sendak's Little Bear and Franklin the Turtle, and British series Tiny Planets). The channel also served as the launching pad for music videos by children's music artists such as Laurie Berkner, Lisa Loeb and Dan Zanes, usually shown as filler between 23-minute-long shows that ran commercial-free. The channel continued to carry classic Sesame Workshop series until September 12, 2005, when Jack's Big Music Show premiered on the channel. Around this time, Noggin began to air versions of classic shows from the Sesame Workshop library (such as The Electric Company), that were edited for running time. In 2006, Noggin began to decrease its reliance on foreign children's programs; Tweenies was removed from the schedule in January, with Tiny Planets being dropped that April. Tiny Planets was previously shown intermittently (i.e. not on a daily basis, at 6:00 a.m. ET, as Tweenies was for a year until it was removed. The channel, however, later acquired the Australian series The Upside Down Show (which, like Tiny Planets, has American origins through Sesame Workshop). Noggin was renamed as Nick's Noggin on April 2, 2007, carrying Nick Jr. programs. 'Return as a full 24/7 service (2007–present)' On August 13, 2007, Nickelodeon announced that it would shut down sister channel Nickelodeon Games and Sports for Kids on December 31, 2007, turning it into an online-only service on TurboNick, with The N becoming its own 24-hour channel that would take over Nickelodeon GAS's channel space. Noggin's time-sharing service ended its 5-year run on December 30, 2007 at 6:00 p.m. ET, with the Little Bear episode "Family Portrait / Little Bear's New Friend / Emily's Visit" as its last program to air. The final sign on was a sudden cut-in to the intro of the American/French series 64 Zoo Lane replacing the song. The change was likely made in reaction to new services such as BabyFirst programming preschool programming 24/7, and reactive to the possibility of Disney creating a 24/7 network for their Playhouse Disney strand, which eventually came true in 2012 with the launch of Playhouse Disney. Due to unknown complications, Dish Network continued to carry a constant loop of Nickelodeon GAS programming on its usual channel slot, with Noggin continuing to timeshare with The N on the satellite provider until April 23, 2009, when Dish replaced GAS with the Pacific Time Zone feed of Turner Broadcasting System's channel Cartoon Network (that network had a programming block called Tickle-U that aired preschool programming from 2005-2007); Dish Network began to carry The N and Noggin as separate channels on May 6, 2009. Programming Main article: List of programs broadcast by Noggin Category:Television channels Category:Noggin